Isn't she pretty?

6 weeks later...

It's so crazy to me that six weeks have passed (or flown) by already. Piper is, well, she's here.

She survived an attempted murder at the hands of Hazel. Poor little Miss Hazel B. is actually totally oblivious to the humanness of Piper. I had to try to explain in the most simple terms that Piper feels pain like Hazel does, so hitting her across the head with a plastic tray table is not a good thing. Oh, and kicking her in the head is also totally unacceptable.

Hazel is two. Let's just say that to set the record straight. She's two. And she's finding her inner teenager. She loves to look at me out of the corner of her eye and say, "No." Half the time I haven't even said anything to her, let alone asked her to do anything or hand an item over.

Piper is crying now - shoot, I thought I had longer than 30 seconds to write up a blog post. Nope. Ah well. Anyway, to be brief: She is six weeks tomorrow. She has begun to make very focused and intentional eye contact. She has trouble burping and it's super annoying in the middle of the night when it takes an hour to get her to burp. She has baby acne now, which is so awesome. She was born at 6lbs 8oz, left the hospital at 6lbs 1oz, and she currently weighs 9lbs 5oz. I'm so proud of her! She has no chin to speak of (thanks, Nate; and I'm not just being mean, he owns that that trait is totally from him).

I'm recovering just fine. Thanks for asking. I had mastitis two weeks after Piper's birth and I'd really rather not repeat that experience. I'm a bit paranoid that it'll happen again. Yuck. Oh and I really suck at this whole two kids thing. I can't seem to find any balance. It usually ends up working out that one kid is totally ignored while I'm taking care of another. Everyone says that I'll get this figured out eventually, but I'm not so sure. I'll tell you in a year if I have it down yet.

I feel I should insert this bit of information somewhere, but it's awkward wherever I put it because it just doesn't flow. I'll just say it and be done with it: Our cat Franki died. Well, we had her put down. She was fading fast from throat cancer. I got up one morning and she couldn't meow any more. We didn't know what was wrong with her at that point but I had been communicating with a vet friend about Franki's weight loss and deteriorating condition so I took Franki to Jen that afternoon and had her put down. It was so sad for Nate and I. And now I think we have mice in the basement.

Okay, more later. I have pictures, they're just not on this computer. Again.

Did you know it's Fall already? My red apple candle is gloriously sputtering on the dining room table, I have wasil makings set aside, the leaves are changing color, I decorated in the spirit of Fall today...It's going to be an excellent season!

Friends & Family

Henta and Stella with Piper.

Henta, Stella, Ivy, and Hazel getting their chance to inspect Piper.

Poppa meets Piper Sue.

Snuggles from Grandpa Banks.

Uncle Stephen snagged Piper for a little while...

...before Uncle Ricky took over.

Nate being congratulated by his mom (Grandma).

Tutu's turn to see the little girl!

We think she's so beautiful and just perfect as the newest member of our family. We're so incredibly blessed!

And heeerrreee's Piper!

We checked in at Portland Adventist Hospital at 6a.m. on Friday, August 6th. We were put in room 2402 and hunkered down to get ready for the surgery. It was strange to sit in the bed, attached to various monitors, knowing that it was simply a count-down until we'd meet our girl (who still didn't have a name, by the way).

Dr. Nakamura was late to the hospital, but Peggy had slept there for two days and nights in a row, so she was on hand. The anesthesiologist, Dr. Lovittz, came in to check on us around 7:30 - and I fell in love immediately! We had three different anesthesiologists when Nathaniel was born and I disliked all of them; we had one with Hazel and she was nice enough; this most recent anesthesiologist was a wonderful man! He took such good care of us. He was our advocate during the birth, making sure we had our moments to take pictures of the birth and to connect with the baby. I remember Nate going over to see our girl when she was being taken care of by the nursery nurse and he stood right in my line of sight; Dr. Lovittz noticed immediately and walked over to Nate; he took him gently by the shoulders and had him step a little to the left so I could see the kiddo, too. I never even said anything to him - he was so perceptive and thoughtful!

Anyway, back to the beginning. Our c-section was scheduled for 7:45a.m., but since Dr. Nakamura was late, we didn't get wheeled in to the operating room until about 8:20. I started to feel really emotionally overwhelmed and anxious while we were waiting for the doctors, so I kinda , um, checked out for awhile. I dozed while Nate and our friend and "event photographer" Lindsi chatted. Finally a nurse and Dr. Lovittz came back into the room to collect us for surgery.

They took me in first to set me up on the operating table and detangle all my wires and such. Nate came in just in time for my blood pressure to drop (because of the spinal) - he was a pro at holding my barf bag. I had so much going on at this point: anxiety, adrenaline, anticipation, fear...I was a mess! I was loopy from the meds, too, so that made it risky to say anything to anyone at any point during the operation (although I did chime in on a conversation between the doctors and nurses about the differences between Rug Rats and Smurfs).

They put up the curtain and started cutting without much ado. I became emotional almost immediately. Nate held my hand and my head while I wept and muttered prayers for our girl. I knew this c-section would take longer than Hazel's, which had been rushed after 46 hours of labor. Finally I felt Peggy climb on top of me and I knew our girl was about to be born.

Something strange and disconcerting happened at that point, though. Peggy climbed back down and there wasn't a baby yet. I felt a shift in the atmosphere of the room. I only found out later what it was. Two things had happened: Dr. Nakamura had opted to make a smaller incision this round than Dr. Sargent had made last time, plus the baby had her right hand up by her face and refused to move it, which made her too wide to fit through the incision. Dr. N couldn't deliver our girl with her hand by her face, so he tried putting his hand in the incision to move her arm, but she would snap it right back before he could get her out. They had to make the incision a little larger and then use a vacuum to get her out.

She was born at exactly 9a.m. - she cried at first, more so than Hazel had initially, but then she calmed down quickly. Hazel settled when Nate began talking to her; Piper calmed all on her own. She was a limp little girl who allowed the nursery nurse to get all her stats quite easily. I knew there wasn't anything wrong with her; she was just content (a word I've used to describe her fairly constantly since her birth).

She weighed in at 6lbs. 8oz. and measured 20 inches long at 38 weeks and 4 days (Hazel was 7lbs. 14oz. and 19 and 3/4 inches long at 40 weeks and 1 day).

I had this incredible moment of recognition when I met Hazel for the first time; I wasn't expecting that this round, though. When I met Piper, I knew her but it wasn't the same as with Hazel. It was so easy to look at Piper and recognize her as my daughter, even though her coloring was so weird to me (her eyelashes are super blonde and her hair has a golden tint; where in the world did that come from). She was happy to nestle in with Nate and I will they cleaned up the OR and stitched up my incision. I have to say, someone should write a book on what should not be said in an OR during an operation. I heard a nurse say, "Wow! I've never had that happen before!" Of course, my immediate thought was something dire having to do with my incision or the baby, but no, she had opened a packaged/sterilized piece of equipment and it had shot out of her hands.

Piper was given to Nate and he brought her over to meet me. Keep in mind she still didn't have a name at this point. I was trying to figure out what to call her, as was Nate, but we couldn't pin it down out of our three options. We were taking suggestions from the hospital staff.

We were wheeled back to our room where we bonded with the baby for a little bit. We talked with her and I nursed; Peggy came in and gave a few more details about the delivery. Someone mentioned the vacuum, which was a total shock to me. I had no idea that would even be an option during a c-section. I wish that hadn't happened, especially since it intensified her jaundice.

Here's a quick picture of Peggy in the operating room. Notice the blood. I think it's fascinating! I was chuckling at the blood that had landed everywhere during the operation. It was all over the doctors and the lights. I blame the drugs for the fact that I found it funny.

Nate and I had three name options that we kept toying with. We might use them someday, but for this little one, Piper fit best. Don't worry, though: It took three days for us to finally commit to Piper Sue. Other options were Hollis and Padget (still with the middle name Sue, after my mom).

Piper is petite. She is so feminine and adorable. Her cry is so cute to me, and she's very specific about when she cries. I know she'll find her voice someday and cry at anything and everything just to hear it, but for now I'm loving her little wail.

I have pictures of family meeting Piper, but I'll have to post those next time (they're on another CD). I'll leave you with one last picture of Miss Hazel. She was so confused by our stay in the hospital. She spent Friday night through Monday afternoon with Rick and Karen; they brought her by the hospital one or two times a day. She hated the room I was in. She'd run around once she was inside, but it became a battle to get her to cross the threshold. It broke my heart when she wouldn't get near me but just stared at me with this deadpan look on her face.

Piper had jaundice so she spent from noon on Sunday through noon on Monday in the nursery under bilirubin lights. I had to wake up every three hours, trek over to the nursery to nurse her, go back to my room and pump, and then take what I pumped back to the nursery so they could supplement her feeding. By the time we left the hospital Piper's weight was down to 6lbs. 1oz., which wasn't as horrible (percentage wise) as Hazel's drop had been (from 7lbs. 14oz. down to 6lbs. 14oz.), but it still had me worried. Her jaundice was under control for the most part, so we were discharged and brought her home.

Hazel was delivered to us by Rick and Karen that evening. She was super tired and quite unsure of the little baby who had followed us home from the hospital. She's still trying to adjust to Piper, and I know that will take quite a bit of time. She did try to knock the daylights out of Piper the other day, so that was hard on all of us, but for the most part she's fairly impartial.

Okay, if I missed anything about Piper's birth, I'll be sure to include it in the next update. More later!

(P.S. If there are some serious misspellings and blunders in this post, I blame my meds. I'm battling mastitis right now and I'm on quite a list of medication, most of which make me nauseous, dizzy, and disoriented. Good timing when it comes to writing a blog, right?)

The Park

I will definitely be posting all about Piper pretty soon, but here is a quick post to hold you over in the meantime.

I took Hazel and Piper to the park last night and it was so fun! This was Hazel's posture the entire hour she was in the swing. I kept asking her if she wanted to see the ducks, and she kept saying, "More swing!" I thought she looked like she was in pain because of how she was sitting in the swing, but it was more than okay with her - she was quite happy!

Finally she decided it was time to go for a walk, so we headed down the path to the duck pond. She trotted along beside me quite well - this was our first park excursion where she wasn't confined to a stroller.

Here she is at the duck pond...

We sure had a good time together. It was so nice to be outside - it's been so stinking hot lately!


Okay, more later!

Less than two days left.

This is my 38 week and 2 day belly. The kid in there doesn't have a name yet, but hopefully by Friday afternoon we'll have that bit of business squared away.

Here's my other kid. Miss B realizes there's a new infant seat sharing the backseat of the car with her and she's been asking where the baby is (without any recognition that my belly is big because there's a baby in there and that it has to come out at some point and will then occupy the infant carrier).

My to-do list is 17 items long, which is just wonderful but I'm trekking through it one item at a time! We're checking in Friday morning at 5:45am and we'll be there through midmorning next Monday. Can't wait to show off some pictures!

(Oh, and I haven't forgotten to post pics of the house with paint on it, so I'll get to that soon!)

Look here, please, but with caution.

I'm going to slap a bunch of pictures up right now and ask you to please try to breathe as you browse them. They're awful. I hope they inspire within you an understanding as to why, for so long, I've been embarrassed to tell people that this is the house I live in, even though I love it for its interior. And also why I use the phrase, "We're the sixth house on the left, the white-trashy blue one with paint missing," when telling people how to find my house.

Okay, deep breath, folks. Here goes. You should know, though, that this is pretty much how the house looked when we moved in, made only slightly worse when Nate did some pressure washing and scraping to prep the house for painting. He caulked all over, which actually made an improvement to the appearance (believe it or not) - slight as that improvement might have been, I'm clinging to it.

This is the back deck (we will be staining the deck).

This is one of the attic windows (Nate's desk sits behind it).

This is Hazel's room, at least the two West-facing windows. My desk sits in the attic window above her room, and you can see one of the basement windows just below hers. That's the breezeway on the right, through which you can actually spot some green from the front yard.

And this is the South-facing window looking into her room; it looks onto the breezeway which runs between the house and that garage. This picture is of the siding just above her window.

These pictures are of the kitchen windows. This first one is of the bit of window that faces South. The next is of the stretch of windows that faces East. The third picture is of the siding above the South-facing window. Isn't my house lovely?

Here is our front porch. The door will be painted black, and the porch, stairs, and foundation will all be painted a nice, dark accent color. It's going to look simply stunning.

And here is the North-facing side of the house. The window to the left is our front living room, and the window to the right is our family room.

This house could be considered totally chaotic. Some of the slap-togetherness of the exterior drives me crazy, and I'm hoping that fresh paint will disguise some of its strangeness.

Okay, next post will be an update of the painting process, so hold your horses.

An Update.

Nate's been painting, and I'll get to that in a moment (or at least when I find the pictures on his computer...), but to start here's a [terrible] picture of my 33 week belly. This is the best I can do when it has to be a self-portrait. Nate was working just outside the bathroom window while I was taking pictures of my belly and finally he tapped on the glass.

"What's the flashing?" was his muffled question through the two layers of plastic and tape and the glass.

"Nothing," I lied. I didn't want him to know what I was doing. It was a little embarrassing at the time. I'm not so shy about it right in this moment, which is why you're seeing one of the poor results of my personal photo shoot.

This day in particular had been quite eventful! Let me break it down for you.

This is how Hazel spent a chunk of her day. She was in glorious heaven, splashing away! When she woke up from her nap, I stripped her down and slathered sunscreen all over her super white skin and then had her step into her Little Swimmers diaper. And then I had her step out of it, turned it around, and had her step back in. And then I had her step out of it, turned it around, and then had her step back in again. I'm pretty sure it was on backwards at that point, but after one look at her annoyed little face I wasn't going to switch it around again.

I dressed her in her swimsuit, which I had to explain several times since she'd never worn it before. I talked about eating lunch and then playing in the pool. She had no idea what "the pool" was (except that it could almost sound like "poop," which is one of her favorite words), but she understood the concept of going outside to play. She ate faster than I've ever seen her eat a meal before; after every bite she checked to make sure we were still going outside by asking, "Ou'si'? Poo'?" As she neared finishing her banana, I watched her use both hands to shovel the last few pieces into her mouth; she picked up her plate and handed it to me, saying with a mouth fit to burst, "All done!" And then outside we went.

She was so excited by the water and all the trees, birds, cars, bicycles, grass, bushes, clouds, carpenter ants...Everything brought a thrill with it. I think the most exciting thing, though, was the fact that I let her hold her bubbles and bubble wand. Those are usually restricted, and so when it came time to get out of the pool, she wouldn't let go.

A bath followed pool-time. Her sunscreen is pretty thick and mineral-ly, so I couldn't even think of not bathing her after putting on a good, thick layer all over her little body. She clung to her bubble bottle and bubble wand all through the undressing. She hollered when I made her pull her fist and bubbles through her bathing suit strap - I'm sure she thought I'd be taking it away at any second.

She made it through her bath (I swiped the bubbles and wand when she was distracted by her rubber ducky and shampoo) in fair spirits. She was becoming quite tired of the water by the time we finished with her bath. I got her out of the tub (which is her baby tub; it sits inside our big bathtub - there's a drainage issue with the bathtub right now, so it is full of grime and residue from the pipe system...so gross, and an obvious reason why she still uses her baby tub), dried her off, and dressed her for bed, complete with socks and shoes so she could run around the house until bedtime without getting her feet dirty again.

I went into the kitchen to make her bottle, with her tottering along behind me. She's free to wander through most of the rooms in the house for the most part; I call out her name every 30 seconds or so just to check on where she's at and find out what she's up to. If she doesn't answer back, I go looking for her.

Well, she didn't answer back at one point so I went running to find her. My house is small, so two steps through the kitchen I was in the hallway looking directly into the bathroom. What did I see? Her little feet sticking out from the bathtub, parallel to the floor. As I watched, they shot upward, meaning that she was falling into the bathtub. It all happened so fast: the realization that for the first time in her little life I hadn't emptied the baby tub of its water, the knowledge that the big tub was still full because it drains at a snail's pace, the fact that she was probably face-first in the water of her bathtub...

Her little feet kicked and twisted so that before I was even in the bathroom she was sitting upright in her tub. Her face and the front bit of her hair were wet again, so I assumed she'd gone under for a moment, but she was okay. I saw that in a split second. After my panic took its leave, I started laughing like crazy. She looked a little put-out by my laughter, but I grabbed the camera and took a few pictures. She wouldn't look at me, so this is the best I could get.

What was left to do but grab another towel and get her ready for bed again? And so that's what happened. Here's a picture just after getting dressed for bed for the second time.

I'm pretty lucky that nothing seriously bad happened. It could have been a lot worse than it turned out to be, and I know that that's by the grace of God!

She's a funny little munchkin! She's adding a crazy number of words to her vocabulary right now, most recently pizza, pancakes, and broccoli. I think she's teething again; her refusal to eat much of anything for several days in a row seemed to indicate as much, but last night she ate two whole pieces of pizza and then this morning she ate three kiddo sized pancakes.

Now I'm off to search Nate's computer for painting pictures. The man has been hard at work! Our house looks so much better!

A funny thing happened today.

Mom had Hazel for most of the day, which allowed me to see Peggy (more on that in a minute), mow another chunk of our field of a yard, and get some work done. I picked up Hazel from Mom's at about 4:30pm. Tutu was worn out, completely (apparently Hazel drug her along on several walks around the property and down the driveway), and when the screen door swung open, Hazel trotted out on the front step. She pointed out a ball, asked me for help off the stoop, and then practically sprinted to the back passenger door on my Volvo. She tried to open the door and when she couldn't she looked at me and said, "Seat!" She obviously really wanted into her carseat. I plopped her in and buckled her and she immediately said, "Home? Play?" I've never known her to beg to go anywhere, let alone if that means leaving Poppa and Tutu's house. I had to laugh.

So I saw Peggy today; the appointment went well. I'm measuring  33 weeks, so just a little ahead. I see the surgeon in two weeks (Peggy will be on vacation so it's a good time to consult with Dr. N.), Peggy two weeks after that (which will be my 36th week), and then I'll see her in my 37th and 38th weeks. I'm not entirely sure why I'm seeing her in my 38th week - it'll be the day before the c-section.

I confirmed with her the c-section date. She scheduled the cesarean for the 6th of August, so we're definitely on the books now.

When Peggy was checking the babe's heartbeat, it was a little slow. Peggy looked at me a bit askance and said, "Hmm, I don't think Mom ate breakfast." The kid's heartrate gave me away! Speaking of food, I'm starving. I should eat. In a minute.

My Uncle Seth brought over a child-sized dresser for Hazel not too long ago, so I stuck that in the nursery today. It's getting a bit cramped in there with all the "necessary" pieces of furniture! I don't know, it might be best to take the twin bed out for now. I like the idea of a guest bed, but it's taking up a lot of room at the moment. If we took it out, it would open up a huge amount of space, allowing both cribs to fit comfortably rather than making it all a tight squeeze. (Can you believe it, this is the first I've thought of removing the guest bed. Oh, and no one has ever slept in it since we've moved here.) Once I get all the furniture situated, I need to find a way to decorate the plaster walls. I have all the banners and pictures I want to use, but I'm a bit clueless as to how to best mount them on the walls. I can hardly wait to get the room finished, though! I'm seriously excited...

To be honest, this pregnancy has been something of a conundrum for me. Sometimes I feel wonderful, absolutely free to do what I like when I like, seeing as I'm not on bedrest this time around. Other times I feel incredibly restricted simply because I'm pregnant. There are things this house needs that I can't do because of the pregnancy. For example: I'd love to be able to deal with the ongoing ant issue myself rather than bothering Nate with the chore when he already has too much on his plate, but, as a pregnant lady, I can't use the chemical we bought; I'd like to stain our deck, but again it's a chemical issue; I'd like to take care of the cat litter, but again...So I've resorted to helping Nate by mowing our yard. By hand. It's okay, I checked with Peggy. The front yard isn't horrible, but the back is a nightmare. I did a small patch today and had to stop. Maybe I'll get to it tomorrow...We'll see. Dumping the grass cuttings is more of an issue than the actual mowing, simply because we dump the cuttings in the field. The grass in the field gives me hives, so you can see the problem there. My arms were covered by the time I finished today. I may be too much of a wimp to take mowing on again tomorrow - I'd rather not deal with the hives again.

Little munchkin...

Nate's family took a little bit of a road trip the other weekend (and it included Nate and I) to see Tom Petty in concert in George, Washington (yes, the comma is necessary here). Mom and Dad watched Hazel all day Friday and overnight until Saturday afternoon. Apparently Hazel learned to put on her rain boots while at Poppa and Tutu's! Whenever she wanted to wander outside she'd race over to her boots and put them on. I wish I could have seen it! This is the picture Mom sent me...

The poor child. After sleeping over at Poppa and Tutu's, she had probably one night out of seven that she went to bed at a normal time and slept the night through. We kept her up too late too often, just with get-togethers and such. These last few nights seem to be better - she's been going down on time and sleeping through the night. In fact, this morning I never woke up to her chatter. I shot out of bed at 10am feeling like a terrible mom. When I went into her room she was standing in her crib staring at the fan. We then launched into a conversation about "fan" versus "space heater." She was fine, but I still feel bad about how late I woke up this morning.

We have church tonight, so her bedtime will be disrupted again, but hopefully the next few days will be much more simple, routine wise.

I'm 32-ish weeks pregnant now, which is crazy. I can't believe this kid is coming in like 6 weeks! The nursery is a bit of a disaster - I need to seriously get down to business and get that room ready for the kid to get here. Do I feel ready, emotionally and such? Um, not really. My Grandpa keeps telling me, "If one kid takes all your time, then there's not much left that the second one can take." I guess that's supposed to make me feel better! He laughs every time he says it...

I really look forward to having a new little baby around, someone to enjoy and get to know as a totally new person, but I'm not eager to deal with the lack of sleep this new person will bring with her. I struggled with a huge hormone surge after Hazel was born, so I was in a bad, bad emotional state for about two weeks, until I discovered my homeopathic called "Blu." I have some in my medicine cabinet now, so I think that that will really aid in dealing with the ups and downs of post labor hormones. I think that just going into this delivery with eyes wide open will help me deal with things as they come, like lack of sleep, hormone surges, potential breastfeeding issues, etc. I'll be ready when she comes...hopefully!

Couponing accomplishment!

So I've been testing the waters of this thing called couponing. Really truly, it's a total bear. I'm not good at it so I find little satisfaction in shopping.

But my experience on Saturday brought me a measure of joy, I must admit. While Hazel was napping, I called several stores to price their Huggies Little Movers diapers (size 4). Between Safeway, Fred Meyer, Albertsons, Babies R Us, and Rite Aid, I found that the best deal was at Rite Aid. A pack of 27 diapers was on sale from $11.99 down to $8.99. I had several coupons for $3.00 off one pack of diapers, which would take the price down to $5.99.

But the good news didn't stop there. Rite Aid has a promotion now where (on qualifying items) I can get a $2.00 rebate per package of diapers when I submit my receipt information online. Oh, and once I buy five packages of Huggies diapers, I get the sixth package free! So, between the rebates and the five packages of purchased diapers, I get two packages of diapers for free, in essence!

When I got to Rite Aid, I noticed that there were also $1.00 coupons attached to the receipts of certain items I planned on buying. I ended up with a wonderful cashier who allowed me to do several different transactions so I used three $1.00 off coupons in the store. I bought three packages of diapers and two containers of wipes (72 count) in such a way that I was incredibly proud of myself. I boasted about my purchases to Nate later that night!

And so that you don't feel as if you've totally wasted your time visiting my blog, here's a picture of my belly (if you haven't already caught it on Facebook). I was 31.5 weeks pregnant when I used Photo Booth to snap this picture. I stuck Hazel in Nate's chair to contain her, but she noticed herself on the computer screen and started grinning. This is what I ended up with...

I'm 32 weeks today, or starting my 8th month of pregnancy. We're pretty excited! I see midwife Peggy on Thursday for one of my last appointments before the c-section. I'll see her at 32 weeks, 34 weeks, 36 weeks, and then the c-section is during our 38th week, so I'm not sure if I'll have an appointment with her just before the c-section or if we'll just go on and check in at the hospital.

Okay, that's all for now. More pictures soon, I swear!

I [heart] consigning.

We've been blessed by living close to both sets of parents; we're pretty darn lucky that they like us and enjoy watching Hazel on occasion.

Nate's parents allowed us to drop her off at their house on Sunday so that he and I could get some things done around our place, namely mowing the field we call our yard and caulking the house. Since Nate had to borrow his parents' riding mower, he took Hazel over to drop her off. Stephen snapped these pictures with his iPhone, and I love them all.

I am absolutely in love with Hazel's little dress in these pictures. I've been hunting for plain onesies for her to use this summer, but I'm having just about zero luck. We visited our favorite consignment store in Gresham on Friday but they didn't have any onesies - everything I find seems to have some logo or design on it, and I really just need simple and plain for her to wear under dresses and sweaters.

Our consignment store has two locations, so on Saturday Hazel and I dropped by their store on 122nd and Glisan. Oh it was wonderful! I found so many cute things for both Hazel and Baby Girl #2. I had a good chunk of credit with the store, so I narrowed down my "likes" and made my purchase.

I found another pair of jeans for Miss B. - she was given one pair in size 18 months, so I wanted another pair to alternate with - and this dress she's wearing in the pictures. There are two brands that I can't pass up when I find them: Janie & Jack and Baby Place (but only footed sleepers have caught my attention from that store; I like their stuff, but I have a thing for the comfort of their jammies). The dress is Janie & Jack and it cost me $6.75 resale. I guarantee it sold for between $30 and $40 when it was new.

When Hazel was about 2 months old a lady from church was giving away about four bins of baby clothes that her little girl had grown out of recently. I drove to her house and she let me take whatever I wanted. Turns out the mother-in-law was pretty wealthy and loved to buy fancy shmanzy baby clothes for the little girl, which is how I discovered Janie & Jack. The mom-in-law must have purchased the entire Spring line when the little girl was born. As Hazel has gotten bigger, the Janie & Jack clothes we were initially given have begun to thin out; at this point, she has a two sweaters, a shirt, a jogging outfit, a hooded jacket, and floral pants. I've purchased a spaghetti strap romper and this dress for summer.

I almost put the dress back on the rack when I found it at the consignment store. I checked the label and even then still wondered if I like it enough to buy it for Hazel. And then I held it up to her little body. Sold. Totally. Why did I ever doubt its cuteness? It has a Western feel with it's ruffles and plaid and collar and pearl buttons and chest pockets...I put her in pink footless tights and a white long-sleeved onesie for church on Sunday. She was adorable wearing it to nursery!

I'll never say no to anything from Janie & Jack, just so every knows.